Effects of Domestic Violence on Children

The experience of living in a home where domestic violence exists is different for each child. Some children may primarily hear or sense the violence while others may witness physical, emotional, and/or sexual abuse perpetrated, most often, by their fathers against their mothers.

How children are impacted by exposure to battering is also unique to each child and depends on the existence and strength of a number of environmental factors in the child’s life. These mediating factors are factors that can be either a source of strength/resilience or a source of risk in determining how the violence will impact their lives.

Children exposed to domestic violence have varying experiences depending on their family situations, community, environment and the child’s own personality.

Children need comprehensive services that serve the continuum of their individual needs.

Domestic Violence affects children physically, emotionally, behaviorally, cognitively, and socially. Some examples of what those effects might look like are below:

Physical effects of domestic violence on children can include eating and sleeping problems, developmental delays, bed wetting, illness, physical injuries, physical and sexual abuse, and psychosomatic disorders (belly aches, head aches, etc.).

Emotional effects can include fear, insecurity, anxiety, trauma, withdrawal, anger, difficulty trusting, conflicted loyalties, depression, stress, feelings of responsibility for the abuse, feelings of shame and guilt, school problems, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, and suicidal feelings.
Behavioral effects can include poor impulse control, acting out violently, becoming an overachiever, becoming a caretaker of siblings as well as parents, school problems, running away, interest in drugs and alcohol, and abusing partners in dating relationships.
Cognitive effects can include learning difficulties, developmental delays, learning that hitting to gain control over another is ok, and confusion about gender roles.
Social effects can include non-responsiveness in infants, difficulty trusting, social isolation, difficulty relating to other children, and school problems.

More resources on the effects of domestic violence on children:

Helping Children Thrive:Supporting woman abuse survivors as mothers